Although it is generally recognized that French farming did not modernize until after World War II, we have known very little about how rural people have actually coped with the upheaval of recent developments, which in one generation led France to become a leading exporter of grain. Peter Amann brings this story to life by examining the response of individual farmers and of specific communities to the new pressures and opportunities accompanying such changes as land consolidation, technological developments, and the impact of the state and the EEC on agriculture.

Combining archival research with extensive interviewing of active and retired farmers, this comparative history vividly traces the social and agricultural portrait of five varying southwestern villages, beginning with Buzet, and emphasizes the momentous changes since 1945. The book not only reveals the dynamics by which modern technology and contemporary middle-class norms have triumphed in rural France but also uncovers a rich diversity of local responses that defy facile generalization.